Small Business Research Centre conference: Entrepreneurship Policy in Context - Critical Perspectives

Thursday 9 May - Friday 10 May 2019

Whilst entrepreneurship is the result of proactivity by individuals and groups of individuals, even in mature market economies, the state plays a key role in shaping the environment in which private business takes place. This international conference will adopt a broad definition of what constitutes relevant policies, including government actions that can affect entrepreneurship although are not necessarily targeted at them.

The conference will be of interest to academic scholars and policy experts worldwide in the field of entrepreneurship and public policy. It will be interactive and designed to provide space for policy makers and academics to share ideas and critiques of policy.

Delegates are encouraged to present papers on any aspect of public policy related to entrepreneurship, but we particularly welcome those related to the following topics:

The role of the state in relation to entrepreneurship in emerging market economies

Better regulation in a cross cultural context

Distinguishing features of inclusive entrepreneurship that affects policy priorities

Is the current array of policy measures focusing on support for internationalising firms meeting the needs of Europe's SMEs?

Is evidence based policy a realistic objective?

Our key speakers include:

David Halabisky - an economist for Canadian government working on SME research and policy, focusing on high growth firms and economist at the OECD working on inclusive entrepreneurship and the development of entrepreneurship skills. He is the author of many OECD books and reports, including The Missing Entrepreneurs series, Inclusive Business Creation, Country Assessment of Inclusive Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship toolkit.

Prof. John Kitching - a researcher in the Small Business Research Centre, Kingston University. He has worked on research projects for a variety of public and private sector organisations, including the British Academy, UK government departments and public bodies (New Zealand Department for Inland Revenue, professional associations (Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed), and for international organisations such as OECD, the World Bank and Eurofound.

Dr. Ermanno Tortia is Associate Professor at Department of Economics and Management, University of Trento. His research focuses on institutional economics especially in the fields of organisational economics, contracts and human resource management, as mainly applied to third sector research and the economics of cooperation. He collaborates with Euricse (European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises, Trento) in research projects related to the institutional theory of social and cooperative enterprises.

Paper Submission and Deadlines

An extended abstract of your paper (about 1000-1500 words) should be sent to Prof. David Smallbone by 13 February 2019. The abstract should include:

Objectives (200 words)

Literature/review (300 words)

Approach/Method (200 words)

Results/Findings (300 words)

Value/ Implications (200 words)

Important Dates

Submission deadline: 13 February 2019Registration open: 15 February 2019Acceptance notification: 8 March 2019Registration deadline for the conference: 5 April 2019